| Badland Hunters | |||||||||||
| Native Name: |
| ||||||||||
| Director: | Heo Myung-haeng | ||||||||||
| Music: | Kim Dong-wook | ||||||||||
| Cinematography: | Byun Bong-sun | ||||||||||
| Distributor: | Netflix | ||||||||||
| Runtime: | 107 minutes[1] | ||||||||||
| Country: | South Korea | ||||||||||
| Language: | Korean | ||||||||||
Badland Hunters is a 2024 South Korean post-apocalyptic action film directed by Heo Myung-haeng in his directorial debut. A standalone sequel to Concrete Utopia (2023), it follows characters trying to survive in post-earthquake Seoul, now an orderless wasteland, three years after the original film's events.[2] Producer Byun Seung-min is the only key crew member to return from the original film.
Starring Ma Dong-seok, Lee Hee-joon, Lee Jun-young, and Roh Jeong-eui, the film is an original Netflix production and was released on January 26, 2024.[3] [4]
In a post-apocalyptic Seoul, Nam-san, a relentless wasteland hunter, along with his friend Choi Ji-wan and other survivors, are living a hard life in their village. Nam-san and Ji-wan navigate the desolate wastelands and scavenge for resources to sustain their community. Trouble ensues when Su-na, who is from their village, is kidnapped by a rogue scientist, Dr. Yang Gi-su, who has been illegally experimenting with making humans immortal by injecting them with a certain serum, which has led to the death of many teenagers.
Gi-su needed more supplies for the serum, and he had set up a network to bring more teenagers to his camp, in an apartment complex. Nam-san, Ji-wan, and Lee Eun-ho, a military sergeant of the camp, discover Gi-su's experiments and go to rescue Su-na. It is revealed that Gi-su had been conducting experiments to revive his daughter So-yeon, who had died around the time when Seoul became a wasteland.
Nam-san, Ji-wan, and Eun-ho arrive at the camp and fight with mutant soldiers. They manage to rescue Su-na, while Gi-su escapes with So-yeon's body in a suitcase. However, he is surrounded by a mob of people, who are prepared to beat him to death. While shooting at the crowd, he accidentally damages the suitcase, killing So-yeon. Nam-san kills Gi-su and returns to his village, along with Su-na and Ji-wan.
Planning for the film began after the production of Concrete Utopia, on November 14, 2021.[9] Filming began on February 15, 2022, and finished on May 18, 2022.[10]
On November 2, 2023, Netflix confirmed that the film was directed by martial arts director Heo Myung-haeng and produced by Climax Studios, with Big Punch Pictures and Nova film as co-producers.[3]
An Ji-hye, who plays special forces sergeant Eun-ho, performed 99% of her action scenes in the film.[11]
As per KOFIC's integrated computer network for movie theater admissions announcements, Badland Hunters was released on January 26, 2024, on Netflix.[1]
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 75%, based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10.[12]
Romey Norton, writing in Ready Steady Cut, rated the film 4/5 and wrote, "Badland Hunters is thrilling from beginning to end, filled with action, danger, brutality, and a tiny bit of humor to take the edge off."[13] Christopher Cross of Asynchronous Media rated it 3.5/5 and said, "Badland Hunters [...] has just enough momentum to string together a series of fisticuffs and close-quarters combat that will elate any action fan."[14] Roger Moore of Movie Nation graded the film 2.5/4 and opined, "The story is recycled and nothing that should hold the interest of anybody who's seen a single post-apocalyptic zombie movie", adding, "but the action beats are first-rate, the fight-choreography next level and the trash talk...is top drawer B-movie pithy."[15] Whang Yee Ling of The Straits Times rated the film 3/5 and wrote, "Don Lee is true to form, pummelling bad guys in an adequate if unsurprising star vehicle."[16]
Badland Hunters ranked first globally in the Netflix movie category, just one day after its release,[17] and from January 22 to 28, with 14.3 million views, was in first place in the Global Top 10 weekly list of the most-watched Netflix TV films (non-English). It retained this position in the following weeks, from January 29 to February 4, with 18.1 million views, and from February 5 to 11, with 6.1 million views.[18]